Did you know that your smartphone can be infected with unwanted viruses and malware just like your computer? If you haven’t already, then now is the right time to protect yourself from virus attacks.
But what if your smartphone is already infected? Are there any signs that will reveal to you that your cell phone is exposed to these programs? The biggest problem is that viruses can be disguised as system updates and, with the consent of the user or device owner, add your mobile phone to a huge network of infected devices that then send spam.
Reduced battery life
Every user knows approximately how long the battery in his device lasts. Although battery life decreases over time, a sudden battery drain may be a sign that something else is consuming your device.
Adware, malware, and viruses greatly affect battery life because they run multiple resources at once. You can find power consumption information in the device settings. Even seemingly harmless applications can hide viruses.
End a call or abruptly shut down an application
Call interruptions or interruptions during a conversation can also be a sign of malware. In such cases, it would be a good idea to call your operator to check if calls are being interrupted due to network problems. If this is not the case someone or something may be eavesdropping on your calls or doing some other suspicious activity.
Slowing down cell phones
Just like on a computer, a virus running in the background can slow down your cell phone. If you know that your cell phone used to work a lot faster, and now it often gets stuck, you may be a victim of a virus. Background malware takes up too many resources for the processor to run other applications smoothly. Checking the CPU load or RAM can detect the presence of malware that is actively running in the background.
Disproportionate data consumption
A virus or malware that sends spam in the background certainly consumes a lot of the Internet. Just by looking at Data Usage under your smartphone settings, you can notice high data consumption and changes in Internet usage. It’s good to know that in all of these cases, battery consumption is also rising.
Unidentified applications and phantom notifications
Caution when downloading applications is the best and easiest way to prevent malicious programs from harming your device in time. Just removing unnecessary apps on your cell phone, especially those you haven’t given permission to install will help a lot. Phantom notifications sent by such applications are one of the indications that the cell phone is infected.
How to recover a device from a virus attack?
Once you discover that the app is responsible for spreading the virus on your mobile, switch the device to airplane mode. This will prevent the app from sending additional information to and from the mobile phone. The next step is to find the application in Device Settings, select Applications, and then delete it from the device. If any of the malicious applications refuse to delete, switch the phone to safe mode.
Also, it is good to store all data, images, and other content on the cloud on your computer via USB. All you have to do is select Backup and Backup in Settings.
Only when you know for sure that all your data is saved do you restore the device to factory settings and then you can log in to your profiles and restore the data to the device.
